The Interview: Ben Harries shoots Oscar Issac for Esquire

Fashion and portrait photographer Ben Harries has an eye for the unexpected. Whether it’s shooting male supermodels in a North London launderette or photographing high-end accessories abandoned in public spaces, his work combines elegant compositions with a candid, intimate attitude. All photos © Ben Harries.

Hi Ben! Thanks for talking to us here at Contact Sheet. So, tell us about your shoot with Oscar Isaac. First of all, how did it all come about?

Hi. Great to be here. So it all came about because I had been working with a stylist, Lee Holden, who Esquire used for some of their talent shoots, and he called me up and said, “Would you like to do a shoot with Oscar Isaac”.  I have to admit at the time I didn’t actually  know who he was!  So I got on to Google, did my research and realised he was the bad husband in Drive.  Of course I knew him.  He had just finished filming the Cohen Brothers ‘Inside Llewellyn Davis’ in which he played the main role and it was his step up to leading man status.

Ah yeah, of course. I've watched that film! Basically he’s a Bob Dylan wannabe who never quite makes it.

So your stylist put you up for the shoot?

Yes, he put me forward for the shoot and also I had been working with Esquire on some previous commissions so they knew my work.

And then so they commissioned you for the shoot. So tell me, how does it work when you're shooting for a magazine like this from a concept and art direction perspective? Do they come up with a lot of ideas or do they expect you to do that? What sort of pre-production goes into a shoot like this?

With this shoot, as with many editorials, the magazine gives you a budget and a clothing brief for the stylist and then off you go to put ideas together. Lee and I looked at the narrative of the film, and his role in it and started researching music venues and cool places to hang out. We came across Denmark Street in Soho which is this tiny street packed full of music history. The Rolling Stones, Bowie, Small Faces, Sex Pistols amongst others, they’ve all been associated with the road over the years. It was perfect for Oscar because as well as being a great actor he sings and plays all the music in the film. 

We had a coffee and talked through some ideas, and then it was really up to us to go down to recce Denmark Street and talk to the music shop and bar owners. On these editorial shoots you're always trying to get locations for free. With something like Esquire it's quite easy because it's a name, which helps a lot. Plus we’re shooting a Hollywood actor, and it's a film about music. So we went to every bar, spoke to all the music shop owners and started putting together a bit of a story. So yeah, it was up to the stylist and me to make that call and then we fed all that back to Esquire.

Right, and they sort of go “sounds like a great idea, let's do it”?

Yep, that’s it.  They liked the idea, so it was all go from there.

Great. And then the shoot rolls around. Do you have a shot list in mind? We're gunna shoot this in this shop, and in that bar, and you just sort of work your way through it? How much does Oscar know in advance about what he's doing?

With Oscar, or any talent, I'm very meticulous about making sure the day is locked down to precise timings and locations, because generally you have a really limited time with these guys. The trick is to make it look like you’ve been hanging out with them all day where as in reality you’ve only had a couple of hours, if that, to build the story. And invariably, some of your planned shots don't work and things can go wrong.  Or that guy that was going to let you use his bar for free doesn’t turn up, and if you haven't got a backup plan you're pretty screwed. 

We knew from the start that the mag was going to run 9 shots. So for the stylist he knows he needs 9 key outfits, with backups, and for me nine locations.  

Yeah, but even so nine shots with wardrobe changes in two hours is a lot!

It is but luckily this time we managed to bag four hours with him.  He was booked from three until seven and afterwards he was going out for dinner with the Coen brothers. So we were like, you can't be late for that. These guys are literally making you a star right now. So you can't be late!

OK. So you’re on Denmark Street and have a bunch of locations lined up. But you’re changing wardrobe between each shot…

Each shot is a different outfit and its definitely not ok to change him on the street.  It’s amazing how, wherever you are, especially in London, the public will stop and watch a shoot going on.  And if they get sight of a celeb the phones will be out and pictures will be all over Instagram and twitter before you know it.  So we hired a gallery location just off Denmark Street as our base for the day.  Somewhere we could have the clothes setup, Oscar could get his grooming done and we could store our equipment.

And then how many of you were there on the shoot?

There was me, a digital assistant and a lighting assistant, stylist, groomer, someone from the magazine, and a videographer, and maybe the stylist had an assistant as well. So that was eight. And Oscar of course.

Oh and we had a runner as well, because when you’re shooting on the street you want to be able to not take too much kit out. If you need something mid shot they can run back and get it pretty quickly. No producer. So it was pretty pared down really.

So how much kit are you using on this then?

Because we were shooting in the afternoon through into the evening I had to take some lighting, but most of it was shot with daylight.  I had a Bowens LED panel and a Profoto battery kit with a small dish on it. Just over the camera stuff. When it got dark I blended the street lighting and shop lights with overhead flash. It's pretty low-fi kit and it means you can move around quickly and not draw too much attention to yourself. I shot to card which gives you freedom to move and meant my digi op could be tucked out of the way.

Easy peasy so far. So what was it like to work with Oscar?

Well it's funny because pre shoot you never deal with him directly, you deal with his management. And his rider was pretty tight. Very specific food, what he would and wouldn’t wear and do during the shoot. Oh and he wanted a very specific brand of whisky.  Fair enough but I was already thinking that this guy was going to be hard work and would most probably turn up with a big entourage. 

Anyway while we were setting up he just wandered in on his own, no manager, no entourage and early which is almost unheard of. I think the front door must have been open. And he was just like ‘hey guys’, and he grabbed the bottle of whiskey, cracked it open and we all drank a shot, then he pocketed the rest of the bottle and drank his way through it on the shoot! Just one of the coolest, most easy-going guys.

No shit?

Yeah such a sweet, nice guy. It was quite a nice way to get the team all together. It wasn't just the photographer, the stylist, the client, it was the assistants and everyone and I mean I gotta say by the end of it the bottle was empty and he was in a great mood! 

His dinner with the Coen Brothers got pushed back, so after the shoot we ended up in this bar, The Alley Cat I think, drinking shots and listening to live music which he was really in to. We were down there for a couple of hours in the end

So yeah, he definitely gets a thumbs up from me, a very genuinely nice guy.

Awesome. And what was the toughest part of the shoot then? 

As it started to get dark it was technically quite tricky to balance the intense neon lights from the shops with the orange overhead street lights and then the fill in flash I was using. There was a lot of funky lighting going on. And, you know, it goes back to that thing of ‘how prepared are you’? I was suddenly looking at these shots on the screen and they were not quite right. So I needed to do something and I needed to do it pretty quick. I chose to use the over camera flash as the main source which in the end was the best option.

Oh, and another thing, unknown to me it was World Zombie Day. Which centred around SOHO with a sort of parade march down Denmark Street. We lost a lot of time waiting for groups of zombies to clear the background. I mean, it was just the most bizarre thing as it started to get dark all these zombies started emerging. And you couldn't talk to them like real people. You know, ‘we're doing a shoot here, could you just….’ instead they’re in character the whole time and we just had to go with it. Luckily Oscar was totally fine about it and in fact to begin with he thought we'd arranged it as part of the shoot!

Brilliant. World Zombie Day – you couldn’t make it up.

I know! Well, zombie day was maybe something we should have found out about beforehand. I mean, to be honest, we all laughed about it afterwards. It's fine. But now I have a few more years experience under my belt, I definitely would get a freelance producer just to be there and have had checked all that stuff out.

And having someone just to be able to hold people back on the street for two minutes. Just so you can get the shot.

Exactly. And go on to the next location, and say we're running late just checking that we're still cool to come in. But that's sort of a luxury when you're trying to save money on editorials.

Cool. So did all your ideas work in the end? You got your nine shots?

Yeah, all worked out really well. And the magazine were really happy.  You know, on those shoots, it's all about getting something from your subject. If the person is not really into it, you've got to try and get something out of them. And luckily, we had four hours but sometimes you only have a limited amount of time and the person has come from one interview and is going to the next interview and you just don't have that much time to get something going.

Or they're not very invested in your shoot because they're doing three others that day.

Exactly. And actually, I think you asked this at the beginning, did Oscar know what the brief was? He didn't have a clue about the brief! We sent moodboards to his management via the magazine, but they don’t get passed on to the talent, you know, he just turns up. I think a lot of people would get tired of that, but he was really fresh and just up for a laugh, and he looked great on camera. It’s funny but quite a lot of actors are awkward in front of a stills camera.

Really? I’d imagine they’d be really good! How do you work with them to get what you want?

I think the main reason is that when they’re filming they are in character.  They’ve immersed themselves in a role and rehearsed that role. On a portrait shoot you’re trying to reveal that person’s true character and some people find that daunting.

But you have to find a way, and I get around it by conversation. And that only can happen if everything around you is being sorted out by your team – assistants, groomer, producer. And then you can just chat to your subject and not worry about any of the technical stuff or logistics.

Right, just stay engaged with them. 

Yeah. And that's where a good team is vital. Because if you're chatting with the actor and your digi operator is suddenly telling you you’re over exposed, you need to have someone that can change that for you without breaking the flow, without babbling numbers that no one else understands. It might be really helpful for you and your digi, but it's not helpful for anyone else. So really you need the kind of person who is in tune with you and has the understanding to just hand you another camera that’s set right or change your settings over your shoulder so you can keep shooting. That’s really important and luckily I work with a great team. On the shoot with Oscar I read he was originally from Guatemala and I had just been travelling there so we had that to talk about.

That’s really interesting. So how does it work from there? I mean, at the end of the shoot you've done your nine shots, and then did you sort of make selects on the day? Or do you send over a few favourites from each set up for them to choose the finals?

Right, so on the day you choose your favourite from each shot as you go, stick it on a moodboard and then you’ve got your day in front of you.  That’s very important and allows you to quickly build a picture of the overall shoot.  It also lets you see if you’re getting too much of one thing, looking in the same direction, too many close-up shots, background variations etc. Also its very helpful to show the talent and their management so they can see that the shots look good and be confident about being in front of your camera.

Generally, time permitting, I like to not look at it for the rest of the day, and then meet up a day or two later with the stylist or art director and go through them. You know, I'm looking at the shot as a whole, but he or she might be looking at it in terms of the clothes, and whether they look right. So, we go through that, pick our top three, and then they get sent onto the magazine. And then from that they'll choose their finals. In Capture I’ll then do my levels and do a bit of a grade, and send it off to the retouch house. And that’s the job pretty much done.

Boom, and that’s a wrap! Nice. Well, thanks, Ben. I think that's a that's a super interesting, working with celebs, zombies and everything. Thanks for sharing!